The Excalibur had moved to the very front of the fleet replacing the heavily damaged Sorceress and supporting Ivanova's right side. The Titans had taken damage and one of its Particle cannons and overloaded and suffered a meltdown due to over use, but overall the ship was still fighting and Ivanova wasn't going to surrender her place at the head of the attack. A pair of Omega's sent laser beams streaming past a few hundred metres beside her adding their power to the attack. The wedge formation had worked and although losses in the leading elements were heavy they had managed to deliver Sheridans new battleships into the heart of the enemy defences. The Warlocks had received the most attention during the attack, the Drakh clearly recognizing their abilities and directing as much force as they could against them, forces which would have been better used against the Victory and Excalibur. With the Sorceress falling back it left just the Titans and the Hecate operational and fighting, with Minbari cruisers staying close by and the rest of the Earth units just behind.
"Captain, General Denisov is sending new orders." Commander Morton checked his earpiece. "We are to break formation and provide cover for the two prototype destroyers."
"Confirm those orders." She replied, it was standard procedure to make sure combat orders came from an authentic source.
"Subchannel I.D confirmed." Lieutenant Patel spoke from the main comms station.
"Acknowledge, Helm move us in behind Excalibur and let the Hecate watch the Victory."
Ivanova's decision was sound, the Excalibur was the closest ship to her, but she knew that if she analysed the decision she would find that she was deploying her ship based on her desire to watch her old Captains back. Captain Krauss of the Hecate was a good officer but frankly the only person Ivanova trusted to watch Sheridan's back was herself, and as the Excalibur pulled away she made damn sure she was right behind it.
The head of the fleet had punched through to the planet killer and now crossed inside the massive structure, firing on all sides as the Drakh ships closed the range and intensified the attack desperate to stop them driving further forward.
"Drakh ships on all sides Captain!" Rossdale yelled from the weapons station.
"Target anything heading for the Excalibur as a priority!" Ivanova stated. "Don't let them damage the flagship."
Three Thunderbolts were destroyed by a sweeping beam from a Drakh raider, a second later that same ship was cut down by a Whitestar. Inside the Deathcloud the combat ranges decreased dramatically with Drakh ships engaging at very short ranges. The Titans interceptor grid was firing constantly, knocking down incoming pulse fire and enemy ships that got too close. Its main guns continued engaging bigger threats, a strike from four of its turrets converging on a Cruiser moving on the Excalibur while its remaining particle cannon claimed another victim.
The two advanced warships were fighting furiously, their weapons in near constant use and a long trail of broken ships marking their line of advance. Earthforce had lost over a hundred destroyers so far and countless fighters, with allied forces taking equally heavy losses. The Drakh were a formidable opponent, while not quite as powerful as the Minbari they were far more advanced than humanity and it was only through skilled tactics and unwavering determination that the older Earth warships were still fighting, even the newer ships had taken a beating but continued to advance. If anything Drakh losses were even more staggering, the sudden concentration of force had smashed their battle line and now threatened their most valuable possession, their old masters weapon of ultimate terror. They redoubled their efforts, driving the older Earth Destroyers back and leaving the prototypes dangerously exposed and all but alone.
"We're losing our escorts!" Morton warned as an Omega exploded spectacularly, its reactor feeding the forward guns even as it went into melt down.
Ivanova checked the displays, they were only covered by fighters and a pair of Whitestars now and those craft were being heavily engaged. The nearest heavy warships were a trio of Minbari warcruiser and a Destroyer group battling forward but making little ground against increased Drakh presence. She uttered a soft curse, they were going to be in serious trouble.
"Four enemy cruisers locking on!" Rossdale shouted across. "Sixty degrees off the port bow!"
"All batteries respond, concentrate interceptors!" Ivanova ordered, the odds did not look healthy. The point defence guns fired, as did the gatling interceptors on the nearby Excalibur, together they formed a dense enough screen to force the smaller ships to break away or risk destruction, but the four cruisers pressed through the fire with superficial damage.
"Brace for impact!"
The crew obeyed their Captain and took hold of the chairs and consoles, tightening seat belts and tautening their muscles. The tactical displays showed the enemy ships less than a hundred miles away, the Titans guns turning rapidly to engage and a flight of Thunderbolts moving in with anti ship missiles, but none of it was going to be quick enough to prevent them firing first.
A pair of blue beams lanced into side of the warship, punching it sideways and flinging any unfastened material into the left hand side wall. The Excalibur also took two hits, though its more advanced armour was better able to withstand the impact. In return Sheridans ship sliced though one of the cruisers with its turreted guns, the green beams carving it up with no apparent difficulty.
Ivanova's Warlock also returned fire, rail gun rounds smashing through one of the attacking cruisers while the turreted dual purpose cannons fired on a second, a stuttering fire of pulse cannon blasts followed by a two second laser burst, followed again by pulses, a steady pattern designed to slice through armour and then blast open the damaged sections.
The Drakh still came on, suffering heavy damage but not retreating. A lance of blue energy caught the Titans on the join between its advanced armour and its more conventional materials, boring through and triggering an explosion in one of the fuel stores for the ships fighters. The fires engulfed the main hanger bay, requiring the forward doors to be opened and the atmosphere to be vented, extinguishing the fire.
One of the Drakh ships finally succumbed, a final volley of pulse fire ripping away its forward section. The Excalibur finished off a second while the third found itself entering the firing arc for Ivanova's particle cannon, and with great satisfaction she ordered it destroyed.
"Damage?" she asked sharply.
"Hangar deck heavily damaged and venting." Morton stated. "Heavy buckling across the hull, and it looks like our last particle cannon is offline."
With a harsh snarl Ivanova noted the weapon had overloaded, installing such powerful weapons on a mobile platform had been expected to be problematic, the Warlock class didn't have the dedicated power reserves and cooling systems of the GOD satellites, there just wasn't enough space and the miniaturized systems were still experimental, and it would appear flawed.
"Divert power to secondary weapons." She glanced at the tactical display, it seemed there was a sea of enemies closing on them and their reinforcements were still bogged down trying to fight through to them, perhaps a dozen Omegas had broken through and were heavily engaged behind them. Starfuries and a few Minbari fighters were keeping Drakh raiders from striking the two prototype destroyers, but they were still badly outnumbered if not out fought.
More Drakh attack ships raced by strafing the Titans. One fell to the defence grid but not before stripping away one of the gun turrets. The remaining weapons maintained a continuous fire, tearing down a Cruiser but not halting the swelling tide. They didn't have enough firepower to break through the enemy lines to damage their target, a control centre for the entire Death cloud.
"More cruisers on our six!" Morton shouted. "Their moving in on the Excalibur."
"You know what to do." Ivanova ordered, the Excalibur was their best chance of winning, it had to survive. Sheridan had to survive.
The Titans altered course, swinging around to broadside the incoming Drakh ships with its maximum firepower and block their attack on Sheridans vessel. The Hecate followed suit, streams of flame gushing from its decks it was in just as bad a condition as the Titans but at least had one functional particle cannon. It turned fully around to target the Drakh forces with its primary weapon, energy mounting in its muzzle.
Once more the two Warlocks fired, and once more Drakh ships were shredded by the attacks but didn't stop. Cruisers and raiders pressed forward firing on the two destroyers and punching holes through them both. The Hecate fired its particle cannon, destroying two cruisers which were moving too close to each other while its pulse cannons filled space with salvoes of high energy.
"Drakh ships accelerating, Captain they're heading right for us!" Rossdale warned.
"Evasive action!" Ivanova yelled in horror. "Continue firing, brace yourselves!"
The Drakh ships held their collision course, both Warlocks finished off another cruiser each before they got too close, the Hecate's Particle cannon recharging just a few seconds too slowly. A suicidal Drakh cruiser ploughed into the heavy destroyer crumpling its forward armour and sending twisted debris slamming through the insides of the Earth ship. The Titans meanwhile dropped down relative to the Drakh, its cannons pounding the Drakh ship as it approached. Ivanova breathed heavily as she watched the distance on the sensor readings cycling down, great chunks were being carved from the incoming ship but it wasn't slowing down.
"Three hundred kilometres." Morton reported. "Two hundred."
She felt totally helpless, for all her experience in battle, for all the times she had trained on this ship and honed its crew, for all those years in Earthforce none of it counted for much right now, the only things that mattered were how fast the guns could fire without melting and how quickly the engines could get them out of the way.
"One hundred kilometres," her XO kept reading, clouds of atmosphere and debris were falling away from the cruiser under the strikes. "Fifty, ten!" The cruisers forward hull ignited as a plasma pulse detonated its forward weapons capacitor, tearing a long rent in the enemy ships hull.
"Hold on!" shouted Ivanova.
A rail gun shot burst the Drakh cruisers reactor, enveloping it in a massive ball of destructive energy an instand before it would have hit the Titans. The explosion rocked the Earth force destroyer and showered it with debris from the Drakh ship like a shotgun blast, the inside of the ship rang like a bell in a hailstorm as countless impacts punched the side armour, some pierced it but thankfully most merely embedded themselves in the thick composites. When the energy dimmed the Titans was still there, its flank blackened and looking like a pin cushion, leaking white plumes of atmosphere but still holding the ship together.
Ivanova settled back in her chair, the lights of the bridge dimmer as power was redirected to combat systems. She noticed the artificial gravity felt far lighter and saw in the corner of her eye Lieutenant Patel extinguishing a fire burning through one of the rearmost consoles. The guns were still firing, the ship was still moving and they weren't currently spaced, which was all she needed to know.
"Resume course!" she coughed a little on the acrid smoke, inhaling a lung full of the foul mixture of soot and burnt plastics. "keep us on the Excalibur!"
"Captain, we've lost the Hecate." Commander Morton said in a heavy voice. The video images showed the sister ship a mangled wreck, its entire forward half a twisted mess of human and Drakh parts and with only its engine block recognisable as a component of a Warlock. It fell back on fire and out of control, its final fate unreadable.
"We've got our orders." Ivanova said forcefully, she needed to keep the crew watching their jobs and not thinking about the loss of their comrades. "Look for targets, fire at will."
A swarm of Drakh raiders swept down on the two prototypes, aiming to strike them from the back. The aft guns on the two heavy warships fired, cutting down scores of the light ships but there were plenty more following. The Titans added her guns, setting up a crossfire with the Excaliburs aft batteries and emptying the sky of attackers. The Victory was not so fortunate, with the Titans heavily engaged and the Hecate a burning wreck there was no one to help cover the ships back, and a few Drakh ships made it through the barrage to tear into the power linkages to the great ships main cannon, the barely noticeable jet of flame taking the allied fleets best weapon out of the battle, only the Excalibur now possessed a weapon which could hurt the planet killer, and for Captain Anderson onboard the Victory defeat seemed inevitable unless he took drastic action.
The battle was turning against the allies and they had just one chance left to try and secure victory, in a few minutes it would be too late. The opportunity would not come again, and with Drakh ships moving in once more on Sheridan and Anderson Captain Ivanova moved her wounded ship to block their path one final time, because if she failed to stop them there wouldn't be enough time for the prototypes to recover and the planet killer would claim another victim. She'd seen it happen before, she knew the fate that awaited a world lost in this weapons embrace and she would not allow it. There was no one left for her back home, no mother or father, no brother, no kindred soul to grow old with, nothing. Her life was empty of everything except her duty to Earth, and her love for her friends, and it was that more than anything which set her resolve. Let the Drakh come, she wouldn't give them another inch of Earth space while her heart still beat in her chess. The battered warship fired again from its blackened cannons, defiant even now, and the Drakh charged forward into their fire. The breaking point had been reached, all it needed was for one side to shatter first.
President Sheridan was growing more and more angry and frustrated, the way ahead of the Excalibur was crammed with Drakh ships, too many for the two Victory class warships to punch through alone and although the cloud was filling with Earth force ships they wouldn't be here in time.
"Sheridan, standard weapons fire isn't getting through." The gruff voice of Captain Anderson announced across the bridge speakers, his command was holding to their right trying to punch through along with the Excalibur.
"I know." Sheridan said brusquely, another Drakh cruiser fell to his guns but more arrived to take their place.
"If you fire your main gun it'll put you out of commission for one minute." Anderson said. "We'll cover you until you can navigate clear."
"At this range all we'll do is destroy some of those ships."
"Exactly, it'll clear the way so we can use our main gun. Just open the door Mr President, we'll take it from there."
Sheridan wasn't sure, but he was out of options. They rest of the fleets heavy ships were still coming up and the Drakh would be able to hold them back for as long as it took to deploy the planet killer and destroy Earth. It was his only choice.
"Standby to fire main gun."
"Mr President, we have a new contact arriving behind us, moving in very fast." The sensor officer spoke up.
"One of ours?" Sheridan frowned, he glanced at the readings and didn't recognize anything about it.
"It isn't Drakh, basic design could be one of ours, but its moving a lot faster than anything we should have."
"We can't worry about that now, target main gun and fire on my command, if its hostile the fleet can stop it."
Excalibur angled its bow and began diverting power for a full strike, the Victory shooting down a pair of Drakh ships trying to interfere with the process. The Vorlon based weapon would probably have the ability to destroy the planet killers control centre, but Sheridan would still have preferred to be closer. He hoped Anderson knew what the hell he was doing.
"Mr President, you need to hear this." One of his officers said hastily.
"Kind of in the middle of something here." Sheridan replied curtly.
"Its from the unknown ship, its hailing us sir, in English."
"English? Its one of ours?" Most ships from alien powers communicated through iterlac, a simplified artificial language. If it was speaking English then the crew had to be either humans of allies of humanity. He hoped. "Lets hear it."
"I say again, this is the Starship Daedalus to fleet, come in."
"One of our names." Sheridan murmured before replying. "This is President John Sheridan, watch our firing arcs, we're about to engage the enemy with a new weapon."
"Confirmed Mr President, we're ready to deploy weapons of our own, we have some enhanced nukes and the means to deliver them rapidly to the enemy."
"Enhanced?" Sheridan wondered. "How enhanced?"
"Well over a gigaton," the voice replied. "We've been monitoring transmissions and scanning the battle, we know you're down to your last chance, we can make it count."
"Captain Anderson, did you hear that?" Sheridan asked.
"We heard, but Mr President we're down to a few minutes. Whatever you're going to do, do it now."
"President Sheridan," the commander of the new ship spoke solemnly. "We can do this, and we can do it quickly enough so that should we fail you'll still have time to try something else. Earth is our home, let us try and save her."
Sheridan sighed, his head was still too full of questions to truly trust this new arrival, but at this point there wasn't much they could do to make it worse. "Alright, take your ship in at an oblique angle, we'll make sure there are no ships in your path, after that you've got two minutes before we go to plan B. Think you can make it time?"
"Yes sir President Sheridan, this is what we're here for."
"Good luck to you and your crew, and to us all."
Colonel Caldwell closed his eyes for a second, inhaled deeply, and accepted this new mission. It was so far beyond anything he could have imagined just a few brief years ago he had to remind himself he wasn't lost in a dream, or perhaps a nightmare. He activated shipwide communications.
"This is Colonel Caldwell, I realise this has turned into a pretty weird day, this was supposed to be a shakedown cruise and instead we end up in the middle of some future war. But this is what we signed on for, this is what we all knew might happen one way or another. Earth is in danger and it is our sworn duty to go and defend our planet, whenever this time might be. This is our fight now, lets do what we all joined up for and keep our homes safe. That is all." He deactivated comms.
"Hanger bays are ready to launch Colonel." Major Foster made her report. "All units loaded up with Mark VII's"
"Bring them to ready status but do not launch yet, we wouldn't want to leave them out here." Despite the F-302's superb performance they still relied on chemical rocket engines which could not hope to match the acceleration of the much larger Deadalus herself. "Weapons status?"
Lieutenant Miguel gathered a quick summary from his station. "All missiles armed and active, rail guns on ready status, all targeting systems live and tracking."
"Dr Novak, kindly keep a watch on the sensor reports, we're in totally unknown territory here so look for any hint of a threat, and make sure Hermiod knows its his little grey butt in the fire here too."
"Yes Colonel." She replied from her station deep within the ship.
"I heard that Colonel." The Asgard replied. "Now that we are in this predicament you can be assured of my skills."
"I feel safer already." Foster muttered.
"Understood." Caldwell replied formally. "You have an open channel to the bridge, keep me informed."
"Two contacts closing from either side." Reported Foster. "Friendlies."
Caldwell noted the two cruisers, each slightly larger than his ship and possessing a flowing and alien design. When he had examined the ships fighting here he had quickly been able to spot the human ships, their basic design was not entirely dissimilar to some of the concepts the SGC had developed before settling on the current starship designs, though in some respects they seemed rather simple for a future ship. However the ships beside them were like nothing he'd ever seen before.
"Starship Daedalus, this is Whitestar sixteen, we've been ordered to escort you on your attack run."
"Roger that Whitestar sixteen, we're beginning our run now." Caldwell turned to Foster. "Alright Major, get this show on the road."
The Daedalus engines burned into life, pushing the ship forward rapidly. The escorting pair of Whitestars had to strain to match its acceleration, and even then the SGC ship was using an economical amount of thrust. The Drakh forces were still concentrating on the two gleaming warships commanded by Sheridan and Anderson and on keeping the main allied force away from the control mechanisms of the Death cloud. While no large ships cared for three fast cruisers skirting the battle a group of smaller Drakh raiders noticed them and moved to intercept, the smaller Drakh ships still comparable in size to the Daedalus herself.
"Enemy ships powering up and locking on." Major Foster reported.
"Hold your course, Weapons, lock rail guns and fire." Caldwell ordered, acutely aware that this was the first time his ship had fired in anger.
The small turrets swivelled quickly around and acquired their targets, at the same time the escorting Whitestars opened fire with their bw guns, performing some quick roles to get a better firing angle. The rail guns engaged as the Drakh raced past, the high speed rounds were small but packed enough punch to open significant holes in the raiders, peppering the closest vessel and shredding the internal systems.
"Scratch one." Miguel called out.
"Nice work guns," Caldwell complimented. "We'll show the Prometheus crew how it's really done." The recent exercise against the sister ship had driven in a few home truths, but it was good to see that his new ship and crew could handle themselves when it mattered.
"Colonel," Novak spoke through the speakers. "I think they noticed us, two cruisers closing on our position, really big ones sir."
"We'll cut them down to size, prepare to fire two Mark VII's, staggered spread."
The Drakh cruisers fired their bow cannons, the Whitestars dodged and returned fire, while the Daedalus held its course. The beam weapons impacted on the smaller ships shields, the Asgard designed systems absorbing the energy and dig it safely with just a moderate shudder affecting the ship behind the shield.
"Damage report?" Caldwell demanded.
"Negligible damage to the shields." The calm voice of Hermiod replied, unflappable as ever. "Their weapons are interesting, but inferior to Asgard technology."
According to Hermiod everything was inferior to Asgard technology. "Very well, continue monitoring."
"I have no where else to be." The voice replied a little sullenly.
Caldwell didn't have time to dwell on the Asgard crew members discomfort among humans, another volley of enemy fire splashed off the shields.
"We're in range." Miguel announced.
"Fire missiles!" the Colonel ordered. "Watch our distance to the blast Major."
The pair of Mark VII enhanced nukes burst up from the ships forward hull, passed the shield and blazed up towards the Drakh cruisers. Caldwell wasn't sure how effective they'd be, both sides were using very high powered energy weapons but hopefully they'd have enough of a kick to get those ships out of their path.
As the missiles arced round they were suddenly cut from the sky in a blue flash, the Drakh weapons having no trouble hitting the relatively slow moving weapons. Caldwell grimaced in disappointment, he had been worried that might happen.
"Engage with rail guns and prepare another two missiles, we'll fire at point blank range."
The Daedalus adjusted course slightly to bring its secondary weapons into arc, the solid rounds penetrating the Drakh armour easily but causing limited damage against the massive vessels.
"We'll be passing by them in five seconds." Foster said, the ship shaking a little more as the shields were subjected to more attacks.
"Weapons, engage as we pass." Caldwell ordered, and moments after saying it Lieutenant Miguel activated the sequence throwing two more missiles at the Drakh. Amazingly the point defences managed to intercept these weapons too, but before the explosions even faded the Daedalus was past them and accelerating away.
"This is Whitestar sixteen, we'll keep these cruisers busy, complete the mission."
It was a one sided battle, the Drakh ships were giants compared to the smaller attack ships, but Caldwell recognized a holding action when he saw one, things were becoming that desperate.
"We'll make it through, thanks for the help." Caldwell settled in his chair, a huge weight of responsibility on him alone now. "Alright, increase speed, but try not to over shoot the target."
The Daedalus powered up its engines, easily out pacing the Drakh ships behind it. They had been waiting until Sheridan was in final position, and now as the Excalibur lined up Foster prepared their final run.
"That's a lot of ships ahead sir." She said quietly. "We can't avoid them all."
"Lets hope President Sheridan's faith in those ships isn't misplaced."
The ships sensors registered a sudden power loss from the Excalibur, then the energy readings spiked as energy was channelled to the ships bow and pushed forward in a massive stream of green and yellow light. Anything in front of the blast ceased to be, and targets close to its path were heavily damaged by secondary effects. It tore its way through the Drakh defenders but missed the Shadow control centre and its own integrated defence network.
"That's our road Major, take us forward."
Following Caldwells orders Major Foster increased engine power, her ship responding swiftly and closing on the black coloured bulge that was the focus of their mission. The powerful purple beams were still busy fending off the main allied fleet and intercepting incoming fire, it took a moment for them to recognize the Daedalus as a threat and by then the ship was almost upon them.
"Decelerate to combat speed." The Colonel ordered. "Launch fighters, have them target the defence guns."
The ship slowed down extremely quickly, its Asgard based inertial dampeners making sure the crew didn't even register the shocking G forces they would have pulled if unprotected. The battlecruiser immediately opened fire with its railguns, turning itself slightly so the fighters would benefit from the ships bulk to screen their launching. The first of the defence guns swung around, its amorphous structure contorting like a bizarre deep sea mollusc before sprouting beams of purple energy, striking the shields with much greater power than the Drakh weapons.
"Damn, that didn't feel good." Caldwell held on to his chair as the shadow weapons battered the Daedalus
"Shields are holding!" Novak reported from engineering. "But its taking its toll, I wouldn't recommend we stay for long."
Another brace of impacts rocked the ship, at the same time its rail gun rounds pummelled the surface of the structure, doing only superficial damage.
"Squadron leaders ready." Foster relayed.
"Order them to begin attack runs, take out those guns and keep us moving."
The starship dove, avoiding the worst of another volley. Foster drove the ship hard pulling some tight turns which stressed the ships integrity and sent some groans of protest through the hull. The dampeners kept the crew alive, but they were best in linear acceleration and the asymmetrical thrust of the engines as the ship turned was putting stress on them, especially with Foster truly pushing the envelope.
As the Daedalus manoeuvred and drew the defences fire the two squadrons of F-302's turned sharply and came in against their target. The controllers of the death cloud ignored them, not considering the small craft to be of much threat against the formidable armour of the control section. The squadron fired its weapons in a mass volley, a saturation strike of two missiles per fighter covered the surface of the structure with masses of fire and radiation. The Mark VII's were deliberately targeted on the twelve surface batteries, and even with their advanced construction the Naquadah enhanced weapons proved far too much for them to resist.
"Enemy guns destroyed." Novak reported happily. "They're defenceless."
"Reel in fighters as quick as you can." Caldwell ordered. "Stand by for maximum thrust and ready our battery of Mark VIII's."
"How many sir?" Miguel asked.
"All of them." Caldwell replied with a thin smile. "Its called a 'planet killer,' I don't want to take chances."
Miguel turned to his station, activating all six of the high yield weapons available on the ship. As he did so the fighters filed into the hangers unmolested, rapidly dropping down and being moved aside for the next planes coming in. Drakh ships were inbound, but they weren't going to make it in time.
"Fighters recovered." Foster said. "Engines at full readiness."
"Lieutenant Miguel, you may fire."
"yes sir." He turned the activation key and depressed the launch button. "Firing sequence initiated, missiles away."
With no defences remaining and heavy surface damage the control structure was in no condition to resist the tremendously powerful weapons launched by Daedalus. Foster didn't hang around, as soon as the tubes were empty she pushed the engines to full power and the ship raced away, arriving near the Excalibur in mere seconds, even before the missiles impacted.
The multiple detonations were enormous, even at long range they obscured everything for miles around in a bright light and flash of energy.
"Can we get a reading on the control structure?" Caldwell asked briskly. "Did we destroy it?"
"Analysing." Hermiod replied, and for an interminably long time which Caldwell half believed was deliberate, the Asgard spoke again. "It is confirmed, the target is destroyed."
A few brief cheers and calls went around the ship, probably echoed across the fleet.
"However," Hermiod continued. "The destruction seems to have activated a mechanism in the structure, I'm not entirely certain but I believe it is about to engage in its primary purpose."
"What he means sir," Novak cut in, "Is that everything's about to blow up."
"The other ships have seen it too, Sheridan is ordering a rapid retreat." Foster stated.
"Who are we to argue with that, take us out of here."
Ivanova looked over at Morton. "Engine status?"
"Active, both Ion and gravitic."
"Then get us the hell outta here!" she exclaimed. "Head for that gap!"
The Titans came about quickly, it was badly shot up but thankfully none of her primary systems were damaged. The powerful collection of engines burnt into life and began pushing the millions of tons of starship towards the perimeter of the cloud and safety. They had seen the destruction of the control room from a distance, and the ship that did it. Ivanova had never even heard of a ship that could go that fast, it seemed to use a series of completely unreadable technologies and powerful ECM prevented a detailed scan. Just from appearance she would have said it was some sort of Earth Alliance secret project, only humans built ships that plain and ugly, but it still raised more questions than answers. She looked at the sensor data one last time, then put her mind to the job at hand.
The deck was trembling as all available power went to providing thrust, there was no way to turn or adjust the course now, it was a headlong charge for freedom and any Drakh ship that got in their way would have a short sharp meeting with one of Earth forces biggest ships. The Victory and Excalibur were rushing up behind them, the advanced ships having far more thrust than a basic destroyer they rapidly caught up with the main body of the fleet. Starfuries and Whitestars weaved between the bigger ships, the Minbari cruisers and lighter Vree ships were already clear and spreading out beyond the shrinking cloud, with the slower Earth cruisers behind.
"Can we get more from the engines?" she checked.
"We can try." Commander Morton replied. "We've got missiles everywhere!"
"That's why we need to be somewhere else." She emphasized. "Believe me, we really don't want to be inside one of these things when it goes active. Been there, done that."
The Titans caught up with the Omega wings, the last batch of destroyers racing for a rapidly closing gap in the clouds structure, the two advanced destroyers with them.
"Oh great." Ivanova cursed. "It would have to be closing wouldn't it? Couldn't just stop half way!"
"We're almost there," Morton said. "A few more seconds, engines are at maximum overload."
She gripped her chair, the tension building to unbearable levels. If they timed it wrong it wouldn't matter about the missiles, ploughing into a piece of planet killer would be enough to end the Titans short career. She watched on the visual displays as a score of destroyers made it through, the last of the Whitestars dodged past the struts and then she caught another glimpse of the small unknown ship darting past the comparatively huge Earth Force ship and clearing the planet killer.
"Here it comes!" Morton called, adrenalin hiking up the pitch in his voice.
The gap was barely a ships length wide, the Victory made it through followed by two Omega's, then another flight of fighters, and then it was her turn. The Titans scraped past with scant metres to spare, followed by another lucky warship and finally the Excalibur herself, forced to roll a little to squeeze through.
"We're clear, we actually made it!" Morton cheered.
"Course we did, never doubted it." Ivanova stood and straightened her jacket. "Report on the Death cloud?"
"Its missiles are detonating internally." Lieutenant Rossdale smiled widely. "Its destroying itself and a few hundred Drakh ships."
"Unlucky for them." Morton said without a hint of sympathy. "Wait, message from fleet command, there are still Drakh ships close to Earth."
"Party's not over yet." Ivanova returned quickly to her seat. "Range to target?"
"Nearest ship is well out of range, plotting intercept course." Morton said.
"Main pulse and laser batteries still operational." Rossdale said. "Missiles are expended and particle cannons offline, we have about a third of our rail gun rounds left."
"Good enough, take us in."
The ravaged warship adjusted course along with a significant number of other ships, but the quick rush to escape had left them out of position and with no formation and it took valuable seconds to get the homogenous mass on the move again. But once they were moving the Earth ships hit with a vengeance, slamming into Drakh vessels which had formed a screen for some of their other ships, Ivanova couldn't guess why but it didn't matter, the Drakh were between the fleet and the defence grid, it wasn't going to take long to finish them.
"Outstanding Ladies and Gentlemen, absolutely outstanding." Colonel Caldwell grinned, the praise very well deserved. For their first combat mission had been a stunning show, with no casualties and a rapid success the crew had performed magnificently and Caldwell was duly impressed. His normally professional and businesslike demeanour slipping for a moment as he felt pride in his crew and great relief that they had not failed. "This is one for the history books."
"If they ever let us tell anyone!" Major Foster chuckled. "How many times has the SGC saved the world and no one knows?"
"Now we did too, its quite a feeling." Miguel joined in.
"Tell Colonel Ronson to beat that!" Foster laughed. "Damn this'll make a fine report!"
"Alright people, lets settle down, look." Caldwell pointed at the sensor station data. "We still have hostiles in our airspace, that means we haven't finished yet. I want fighters in the sky and all weapons locking on within the next thirty seconds."
"Yes sir." Miguel went straight back to work aligning the targeting system.
"Bridge, this is Novak." A now familiar female voice announced. "There are a lot of Drakh ships in Earth orbit, satellite defences are taking them down but there are still lots of them out there."
"Then we head for Earth, best possible speed Major."
Foster laid in the coordinates and brought the ship around, the bright bleu globe filling the forward screens and the hearts of the crew.
"Wait a minute, the alien ships are doing something…" Novak exclaimed, the tension in her voice carrying in the electronic buzz of the speakers. "They're dropping something into the atmosphere!"
"Working to analyse." Hermiod said impassively, but Caldwell didn't need the Asgard to tell him this was very wrong.
"Major, get us moving now!"
The Daedalus made the short sprint to Earth orbit and swept into the midst of a Drakh group, the F-302 interceptors roaring out of the hangers each still carrying two ship killing Mark VII's which hadn't been fired earlier. Before it had even decelerated a pair of missiles were launching from the ship, they punched through one of the surprised Drakh vessels emptying a black substance into the atmosphere and destroyed it before it could continue. Earths defence grid was swatting ships out of the sky at an alarming rate, the missile swarms and terrifically powerful particle cannons were doing their job, but simply not quick enough. Even with Daedalus now engaging the unarmed tankers the damage had been done.
Whitestars and fighters arrived to add their fire power, and then the first heavy units joined in, bearing scars of the attack on the Death cloud they caused the few remaining Drakh vessels to open jump points and flee. The battle was over.
"Enemy forces have retreated."
President Sheridan barely heard those words, he sat with a look of abject horror as a black morass settled over his blue and white home. He hadn't expected this, he had thought the Planet killer was the Drakh's only weapon and he had been wrong. They had thought victory was theirs, it had cost them and it had almost slipped through their fingers, but he thought they had won.
Groups of less heavily damaged ships were opening jump points and giving chase to the Drakh ships, eager to take some revenge for the cowardly attack, but Sheridan did not accompany them, both Victory and Excalibur had taken damage and needed repairs, especially Victory, but at least they had survived. He was faced now with two questions, firstly and most importantly was finding out exactly what had happened to Earth, how to fix it, and how to make sure the Drakh paid in blood. The second was the identity of the newly arrived vessel, it had destroyed the Planet killer control room and a number of Drakh ships thereby proving it was a friend and possessed a seemingly human crew.
"I need a channel to Earth central," Sheridan said quietly. "Try to find out what happened. Then I want to speak to the Daedalus, find out exactly who they are and where they stand."
